Book Reviews and Notices : The Law of the Soviet State. BY ANDREI Y. VYSHINSKY, General Editor. Translated by HUGH W. BABB. (New York: The Macmillan Company. 1948. Pp. xvii, 749. $15.00.)

• Author: Edgar Bodenheimer
• Published date: 01 September 1949
• Date: 01 September 1949
• DOI: 10.1177/106591294900200321
• Subject Matter: Articles

439

The

political

scientist

will

be

interested

to

discover

that

one

of

the

possible

reasons

for

the

variations

in

interpretation

of

the

Renaissance

has

been

the

tendency

to

dwell

(frequently

in

an

intuitive

fashion)

upon

the

artistic,

literary,

moral,

and

social

aspects

of

the

period,

with

a

corre-

sponding

neglect

of

actual

political

and

economic

institutions.

A

student

of

political

forms

and

processes,

if

he

could

arm

himself

with

the

massive

historical

equipment

required,

should

be

able

to

make

real

contribu-

tions

to

a

new

and

more

objective

statement

of

the

essential

nature

of

Renaissance

civilization.

Professor

Ferguson

holds

such

a

statement

de-

voutly

to

be

wished

for.

But

the

task

is

reserved

for

another

book.

If

this

conclusion

proves

disappointing,

the

reader

will

at

least

have

acquired

a sense

of

the

range

and

the

complexity

of

the

problem.

ARNAUD

B.

LEAVELLE.

Stanford

University

.

The

Law

of

the

Soviet

State.

BY

ANDREI

Y.

VYSHINSKY,

General

Editor.

Translated

by

HUGH

W.

BABB.

(New

York:

The

Macmillan

Com-

pany.

1948.

Pp.

xvii,

749.

$15.00.)

This

book

does

not,

as

its

English

title

would

seem

to

suggest,

deal

with

Soviet

law

in

all

of

its

phases.

It

is

a

translation

of

a

textbook

on

Soviet

state

law,

composed

by

the

Institute

of

Law

of

the

Soviet

Academy

of

Sciences

in

1938

under

Mr.

Vyshinsky’s

direction,

and

con-

tains

primarily

a

legal

analysis

of

the

Soviet

Constitution

and

of

the

basic

social,

political,

and

administrative

structure

of

the

USSR.

The

text

includes

a

discussion

of

laws

relating

to

the

courts,

elections,

and

the

rights

and

duties

of

citizens,

but

Soviet

civil

law,

criminal

law,

and

the

details

of

procedure

are

outside

of

its

scope.

Professor

John

Hazard

of

Columbia

University

points

out

in

his

valuable

introduction

to

the

translation

that

the

great

reputation

of

Mr.

Vyshinsky

as

a

leading

Soviet

lawyer

and

statesman

has

made

the

book

required

reading

for

every

Soviet

student

of

government

and

law.

Because

of

its

standing

as

an

authoritative

text

on

Soviet

public

law,

the

work

affords

interesting

insights

to

American

readers

into

the’

psy-

chology

of

textbook-writing

and

the

methods

of

presenting

legal

ma-

terials

in

vogue

in

the Soviet

Union.

The

interest

is

heightened

by

the

fact

that

Mr.

Vyshinsky

makes

frequent

comparisons

between

the

Soviet

and

non-Soviet

legal

systems,

including

that

of

the

United

States.

In

consonance

with

the

general propagandistic

line

of

approach

towards

the

outside

world,

the

differences

between

Soviet

and

&dquo;bourgeois&dquo;

legal

institutions

are

pictured

exclusively

in

black

and

white

shadings.

Lavish

praise

is

bestowed

on

all

Soviet

institutions,

while

those

of

the

non-

Soviet

world

are

described

either

as

inherently

evil

or

as

ideological

con-

structions

designed

to

conceal

the

class

character

of

bourgeois

rule.